Sparring Question??? how long how many times a week?how Hard?

[Rockin']

Its a tricky thing, gauging how much to spar. On the one hand you have to have that ring experience to even learn to fight. On the other hand you dont want to spar to much, leaving your fight in the gym when you go to actual bouts.

The thing to look at is how much of a pounding are you taking every night. If you find a guy that you work with well, meaning he isnt always loading up and neither are you, then you should spar every day, training those eyes.

On the other hand if you are stepping in and warring every day you are going to experience a bit of burn out in your works. It could take along time or it could be a short time until you experience it, but in time with constant warring in the gym, you are going to.

With young kids I will only work them a couple of times a week, maybe 4 to 6 rounds. At that age I am extremely carefull with them. Older guys that are into actual bouts I will work more regularly, the rounds per week varying by the individual.

Its simple though, if you want to learn to box then you must actually box. Aswell, if you are going to box then you are going to need to experience whats its like to eat one and then learn to keep your compsure and then get in there and get it back. While its best to not get hit, it will happen sometime. Best to learn how not to be hit in the gym with 16oz gloves rather than in a fight with 10oz gloves.

Rockin'

[halfstepdown88]

How many times do you guys go to the gym a week? Is it hard to keep a job and box at the same time?

[Rockin']

When I was fighting pro it was 6 days a week. When fights were close we would go to 2-a day workouts. I was in some incredible shape back in those days.

Rockin'

[yrrej]

If you plan to do any serious fighting, you should spar a lot, preferably every day. As you say, it should be a learning experience, rather than a slugfest. The heavy bag is for power work, unless the guy gets cute.

[Playing4Uni3rds]

I spar pretty close to 100% and as often as we can, at least 3-4 times a week. We tend to do rounds of varying time depending on what we feel like. Usually on the last round as a bit of laugh we go until the others nose is bust, no broken or messed up too much just so there is at least some blood.... They took fox hunting from us so we don't get any blood, we dam well want some mano-a-mano

[SquareCircle]

If you want to be great, you have to spar every day. There's no way around it, no matter how much you do other exercises it won't make up for what sparring does for you. Naseem Hamed did so much sparring that it made up for his road work, and look how far he went. You dont want to spar with a guy who always tries to hurt you, though. Spar with a guy who doenst load up constantly like rockin said.

of course you can spar once or twice a week, if you want to be mediocre. if you want to be the best in the shortest amount of time, find a guy you work well with and spar everyday.

and then after regular sparring do body only sparring.

[halfstepdown88]

what does body only sparring do?

[Southpaw Stinger]

what does body only sparring do?

No head shots just focus on the body. Usually means you can punch a bit harder in sparring but it can be beneficial in learning to throw and defend body shots.

[Rockin']

There are things to be learned while throwing only to the body. Its a way for your eyes to learn to pick up on the movements of a guy when hes going to throw. Aswell, it teaches the rhytme of the fight. It helps with timing and learning to roll with shots. Its a way to get a little experience and focus with out getting punched in the head. Its good for beginners while trying to break them in abit.

Rockin'

[KingDosia]

If you ask the old timers they will tell you that sparing is the best training and the only training that is essencial for a fighter. Nothing else matters. I'll tell you this I don't care if you are only fighting three 1 min rnds. You need to be in the ring, in front of an oponent. go about 50% for three min rnds. If you can do it put in 10 or so. Work everything defense, jabs combo's footwork Everything. and do it at least three times a week. All other training tools are just suplemental.